‘Perhaps a dinner then.’ She raised her eyebrow, her hand still lingering, sliding down from where his sleeve was rolled up to where his forearm was bare. I wanted to swat it straight off him; I could feel the ease had evaporated from his body. Maybe it made him uncomfortable to have me witnessing how much flirting went on at his workplace. With his gorgeous, rich and powerful boss. ‘Enjoy the rest of the party.’
As soon as she was gone, Stephen curled his arm around my waist, pulling me around to face him but I held myself back from pressing against his chest the way I wanted to.
‘Are you all right? You’re abnormally quiet.’
‘I’ve drunk too much champagne.’ It wasn’t even a lie. The motion of the yacht as it glided over the water was not helping with how unsteady I felt.
His dark eyes grew concerned. ‘Shall we find a seat and get you some water?’
‘That’s probably a good idea.’
We headed below deck to the massive lounge. Not many people were down there. Why would you be when you could be watching the New York skyline as the sun went down? Unless you needed the toilet. I might be needing it myself soon if my stomach didn’t settle.
‘Here, look out the window, otherwise it might make you feel worse.’ He guided me over to a sofa by a porthole and kissed the top of my head. ‘I’ll go get you some water and see if I can find anything more substantial for you to eat.’
‘Just the water will be good.’ I caught his hand, hating the jealousy that was roiling up inside of me when he was being so kind. I wanted to focus on the good stuff. ‘So, how many of my books have you read?’
‘Ahh.’ He grinned. ‘I may have exaggerated slightly. I bought your latest and was thoroughly enjoying it, so I decided I needed to read the series from the beginning. I bought them all and I’ve started from book one.’
‘Oh. So you haven’t finished any yet?’ I tried to beat down the disappointment.
‘No.’
‘Why did you make out you have then?’
‘You don’t like me promoting you?’
‘You don’t need to do that. I’d prefer you to be honest.’
‘I wasn’t dishonest. I do think you’re a great writer, Noelle.’ His brow furrowed as he looked at me, but I didn’t feel up to explaining that spinning a tale from a kernel of truth was still a lie. ‘I’ll go get that water,’ he said, his voice more subdued. ‘Don’t go anywhere while you’re feeling unsteady, okay?’
I nodded and turned to lean on the sill of the window. It was growing dark out and the water was gunmetal grey now. Perhaps we were due a storm? A break in the heat would be welcome.
Someone sat down next to me and I looked over in surprise, my head swinging that way and my vision following a few seconds later in a way that made my stomach churn. I hadn’t expected Stephen to be back so quickly, thinking he’d be stopped a million times on his way to find a glass of water.
And I was right: it wasn’t him. It was his friend from the bar the other night – Logan. Fantastic. It hadn’t occurred to me that he’d been here too.
‘Hi there. You look familiar, but you don’t work with us, do you?’
Oh God, was he going to try and pick me up? He didn’t even recognise me.
‘No.’ I was going to save us both the agony and hope he moved on quickly. ‘You tried this before at a bar a few weeks ago.’
‘I did?’
He put his meaty arm behind me on the sofa and I shuffled away. If he didn’t get going soon, I was going to barf on his shoes. ‘Yeah. And I told you to get lost then too.’
His eyebrows raised and he looked me over. I saw it the second he remembered. All his fake friendliness evaporated. ‘I remember. On Fifth Avenue.’ His lip curled. ‘Your friend was prettier.’
‘And not interested either.’
He shook his head and stood up, about to go, thank goodness. Then he turned. ‘I suppose this means I owe Stephen now.’
‘Huh?’ Not my most elegant response.
‘You’re here with him, right? He won the bet. We made a wager on who could get a date with one of you – or more.’ He leered. ‘Took him a while but I underestimated his game.’
I didn’t wait to see him leave; there wasn’t time. I staggered for the door at the end of the cabin and managed to get to the toilet just in time for the alcohol to travel back up from my stomach.
